Whilst wandering around this evening in a bit of a daze from staying up late watching the Tour De France I spied the moon coming up. As I was outside and had an excellent bonfire going to keep warm I ran inside and got my camera and tripod. Was just in time to fire off a couple of quick shots before the moon rose above the trees and into the open sky. 

This bike was purpose built with travelling in mind. It has 2 S&S Couplers built into the frame. 1 in the top tube and the other in the down tube.The concept is for the bike taken apart and the whole thing packs neatly into an S&S travel case, The case is designed to be checked in as normal luggage and is within the specifications of most airlines so you are not dealing with an oversize baggage issue.

This was my first attempt at packing the bike into the travel case and I was hoping it was going to fit. It took a couple of hours but I managed to get everything in and packed nicely. It will become easier with practice and next time all the frame protecters will have already been cut and labled so I am hoping to do the whole procedure in about an hour. Because my bike is so big ( I am 6' 4" ) I had to remove the forks and the crankset. With smaller frames this wouldn't be nec

We arrived safely back from L.A. this morning and the bike case was a dream to deal with. Checking the bike in with the normal sized baggage, and the convenience of the case being heaps smaller than a bike box, meant for less hassle moving around busy airport terminals. The total weight for the case with the bike packed including my cycling shoes and all the bikes accessories was 20.5 kg. You are allowed 23kg on flights to and from America so well under that. This means I can fit my cycling clothes in as well.

Over here in Los Angeles I've been trying to tell Barry, aka Silver Streak, the reason he is being dropped on the hills is due to the fact he is a vegetarian and does not get enough protein. But he does eat fish so I'm not sure if you can be a vegetarian and eat fish. Does this make you  a fishetarian or is there another word for this dietary conundrum? Anyway below is his response!!!!   

Today we rode around 110 km starting at Malibu and heading North to Port Hueneme on the Pacific Coast Highway. We had planned to start early so as to join in with other cyclists but Barry reckons he couldn't wake me up but I think he didn't really try too hard and when I have my ear that works on the pillow I cant hear a thing.
We have got a little more organised and made our own porridge for breaky and there is a coffee shop over the road from the motel that fires up around 6.30 am so I can get an early fix of caffeine and be semi alive before leaving. 

The ride was a quite scenic following the coast for most of the way before a detour through some vegi growing areas to Port Hueneme.I think most of the regular cyclist in the area were coming home from their rides as we departed from the starting point at Malibu Lagoon. We ended up at a little cafe at Port Hueneme where we had a decent feed of eggs Benedict with a plethora of Hollandaise sauce and hash browns.By the time it was time to start riding again it was cold enough for my nose to be running. We had a really nice tailwind heading back sometimes cruising at around 40 kmh. The last couple of rolling hills near the end were enough to make the legs hurt to let us know we had done a decent ride. 


Back to the motel for a freshen up and wash some clothes before heading out for Pizza to keep our energy levels up for tomorrows activities whatever they may be. I might even set my alarm clock but the again......

Arrived in L.A. Thurday morning and felt pretty jet lagged for most of yesterday. Had a decent night's sleep last night even if my bed leaves a little to be desired so have perked up a little today.Just got home from a 70 km ride with Barry with quite a bit of the ride on a bike path that runs along and sometimes in the middle of Manhattan Beach.We are staying in this groovy little motel called the Villa Brazil Motel that is run by Brazilian people and has a really nice cafe with a Brazilian flavour. You see heaps of hand painted signs around LA. which is a nice touch and everyone seems really friendly. It's pretty cool really around 20 degrees celsius max, even though it's twice as warm as when we left Melbourne. 

When working on my renovations my friend Fox (who is also a builder) and myself always have a bit of a joke that on Tuesday I never want to spend any money. We call it Tight Arse Tuesday. So on a recent trip when I saw this sign whilst stopped at a red light I just managed to get a photo to show him I'm not the only one.

This trailer was actually in my junk pile about 3 weeks ago. I have refurbished it and it's really unrecognisable 
from the pile of junk that I started with. Wish I had a photograph of the original trailer in it's raw state. Great to breath some life into this trailer that may father bought around 1980. The sides and floor were timber originally and there was no lights. I'm towing it to Sydney tomorrow so I hope it doesn't fall to bits.